United Kingdom. Contract packing for food, drink and personal care
Find a co-packer: what the brief has to say before anyone can quote
The reason finding a co-packer is hard is not that there are few of them. It is that a brand approaching one for the first time usually cannot answer the eight questions a packer needs answered before it can price anything, so the enquiry goes into a pile and nothing comes back. The questions are the same everywhere: format, volume, shelf life, storage temperature, ingredient supply, certification, labelling and who owns the recipe. Answer them once, and the same enquiry that produced silence produces comparable quotes from firms that can actually do the work.
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- Tell us about the job. Two minutes, no account needed.
- We pass your details to relevant local specialists (only the ones you'd expect).
- They contact you directly with quotes; you choose, or walk away.
Find A Co-Packer is an independent site operated by Ellul Solutions Ltd. It is not affiliated with, endorsed by or connected to the Food Standards Agency, any certification scheme owner, any retailer or any contract packer, and it is not a manufacturer, a broker or a food safety consultancy. Nothing here is legal or regulatory advice on a particular product, and responsibility for a product's compliance rests with the food business operator whose name is on it, which is the brand. We name no packer in either direction, take no commission on any contract and carry no paid placements. We publish no per-unit price or minimum order quantity anywhere, because those are set per packer and per specification and a published range would be used as a benchmark it is not. Every regulatory statement is taken from the source cited on this page and read on the date shown at the top of it.
What a co-packer needs before it can quote, and why each one filters the list, 2026
Last updated
Contract packers do not ignore enquiries because they are busy. They ignore enquiries they cannot price, and an enquiry is unpriceable until eight things are settled. This is that list, with what each one rules in or out.
The regulatory rows are quoted from gov.uk and Food Standards Agency business guidance, read on 15 August 2026, covering food business registration and the food information rules that attach to the food business operator under whose name a product is marketed. The commercial rows describe what a packer must know in order to price a run, which follows from how a packing line is scheduled rather than from any published rule; they are set out as requirements rather than as claims about any named firm, and no packer is named anywhere on this site. No price, minimum order quantity or unit rate appears in this table. Those are set per packer, per format and per volume, no authority publishes them, and a range invented here would be quoted back at a packer as though it were a benchmark. Certification schemes named are named as categories to ask your retail buyer about rather than as recommendations, and this site holds no relationship with any scheme owner.
| What the packer needs | Why | What it rules out | If you do not know yet |
|---|---|---|---|
| Format: pouch, bottle, can, tub, flow wrap, carton | The line is the constraint. A packer owns specific machinery and cannot run a format it does not have | Most of the market, immediately. This is the single hardest filter | Say so. A packer can advise on format, and an enquiry that names a format it cannot run gets no reply at all |
| Volume: first run and expected annual | Minimum order quantity, and whether the changeover cost can be recovered across the run | Packers whose MOQ is above your first run, which is the commonest single reason a small brand hears nothing | Give a real range rather than an optimistic one. An inflated forecast produces a quote you cannot then meet |
| Storage and distribution temperature | Ambient, chilled and frozen are different facilities, different logistics and often different companies | Every packer without that chain, and it is not a small adjustment for them to add | Decide this before briefing anybody. It changes the shortlist more than the recipe does |
| Shelf life required | It drives process, packaging specification and testing, and it is frequently the thing that sends a recipe back for reformulation | Formats and processes that cannot achieve it | Ask what your route to market requires. Retail typically needs more than direct to consumer |
| Who supplies the ingredients or components | It decides who carries the working capital, who owns the specification risk and how the price is built up | Nothing directly, and it changes the quote structure completely | Say it is open. Packers will price both ways if asked |
| Certification your route to market requires | Retailers set audit and scheme requirements, and a packer either holds the certification or does not | Every packer without it, and certification is not something a packer adds for one customer | Ask your retail buyer before briefing anybody. This is the filter people discover last and should apply first |
| Labelling and who is responsible for it | Food information rules attach to the food business operator under whose name the food is marketed, which is the brand | Nothing, and it prevents the most common post-launch dispute | Assume it is yours. Some packers will help with artwork and compliance, and help is not the same as responsibility |
| Recipe ownership and development | Whether you supply a recipe, need it scaled for production, or want the packer to develop it changes the commercial relationship entirely | Nothing, and it decides who owns what afterwards | Settle it in writing before development starts. A recipe developed by a packer without an agreement is the standard cause of a brand being unable to move |
| Registration, on both sides | gov.uk requires food businesses to register with the local authority, and the brand is a food business as well as the packer | Nothing, and it is the step brands most often assume the packer covers | Register. It is free and it is not optional because somebody else makes the product |
- Format is the hardest filter in contract packing: a packer owns specific machinery and cannot run a format it does not have.
- Minimum order quantity is the most common reason a small brand's enquiry receives no reply at all.
- Ambient, chilled and frozen packing are different facilities with different logistics and frequently different companies, so temperature decides the shortlist before the recipe does.
- Certification is set by the retailer rather than by the brand, and a packer either holds it or does not, so it is the filter to apply first and the one brands apply last.
- Food information rules attach to the food business operator under whose name the food is marketed, which is the brand rather than the packer.
- Food businesses must register with the local authority, and that obligation applies to a brand as well as to the company physically making the product.
- A recipe developed by a packer without a written agreement about ownership is the standard reason a brand later cannot move production.
Cite this page
“What a co-packer needs before it can quote, and why each one filters the list, 2026”, Find A Co-Packer, https://findacopacker.co.uk/ (updated 2026-08-15). The regulatory rows are quoted from gov.uk and Food Standards Agency business guidance, read on 15 August 2026, covering food business registration and the food information rules that attach to the food business operator under whose name a product is marketed. The commercial rows describe what a packer must know in order to price a run, which follows from how a packing line is scheduled rather than from any published rule; they are set out as requirements rather than as claims about any named firm, and no packer is named anywhere on this site. No price, minimum order quantity or unit rate appears in this table. Those are set per packer, per format and per volume, no authority publishes them, and a range invented here would be quoted back at a packer as though it were a benchmark. Certification schemes named are named as categories to ask your retail buyer about rather than as recommendations, and this site holds no relationship with any scheme owner.
Questions, answered directly
How do I find a co-packer in the UK?
By making the enquiry answerable rather than by finding a better list. Packers ignore enquiries they cannot price, and an enquiry becomes priceable once eight things are settled: format, first run and expected annual volume, storage temperature, required shelf life, who supplies ingredients, what certification your route to market requires, who is responsible for labelling, and where the recipe comes from. An enquiry containing all eight is answerable on the day it arrives; one missing format or volume usually is not answered at all.
Why do co-packers not reply to my enquiry?
Usually one of two reasons, and neither is that you are too small. Either the format is one they do not run, because a packer owns particular machinery and does not add a line for one customer, or your first run is below their minimum order quantity, which exists because a changeover costs the same whether the run is short or long. Both are answered by stating the format and the honest volume up front, which lets a packer say no quickly and lets the right ones say yes.
Who is responsible for the label, me or the co-packer?
You. Food information rules attach to the food business operator under whose name the food is marketed, which is the brand on the front of the pack rather than the company that filled it. Some packers will help with artwork and compliance checks, and help is not responsibility: a wrong allergen declaration is the brand's problem however it reached the label. The same logic applies to registration, which brands often assume the packer's factory covers.
Do I need to register as a food business if a co-packer makes my product?
Yes. gov.uk requires food businesses to register with their local authority, and a brand having products made for it is a food business. This is the step most often assumed to be covered by the packer, because the packer is the one with the premises. Registration is free, and being unregistered is a poor position from which to have a first conversation with an enforcement officer.
What does co-packing cost per unit?
We publish no figure, deliberately. Contract packing prices are set per packer, per format, per volume and per specification, no authority publishes them, and there is no meaningful average because the same product costs wildly different amounts at a thousand units and at a million. A range found on a website gets quoted back at a packer as a benchmark by somebody who does not yet know their own volume. What is publishable is the seven things the price is made of, and run length is the largest by a distance.
Who owns the recipe if the co-packer develops it?
Whatever you agreed in writing before development started, which is why that agreement matters more than it feels like it does at the time. A recipe developed by a packer with no written position on ownership is the standard reason a brand later discovers it cannot move production without starting the development again. Settle ownership of the recipe and of any development work, along with tooling and artwork, at the point of engagement rather than at the point of leaving.
What should I check when visiting a co-packer?
The line your product would run on rather than the reception area, and what else runs on it. Ask for the certification document rather than the claim, and check that its scope covers your category and format and that it has not expired. Then six questions: the allergen position on a shared line, lead times in a normal month and in November, what happens if a run fails quality checks and who pays, how big you are relative to their largest customers, notice periods both ways, and how they have handled a recall.